4th Dimension

I was discussing a research topic with a colleague. The name of a movie popped up in conversation , Ankush (1986), itni shakti hume dena data…wali movie…I decided to watch Ankush this weekend with bollywood drama expectations, assuming I would encounter a dated cinematic narrative whose relevance had long faded. But, film did not feel like a historical artefact; it felt like a diagnostic lens through which I could reinterpret many of the anxieties I observe among Indian youth today. This realisation complex me to inquire into how certain structural tensions persist across time, even as their outward forms change. The first striking continuity lies in the representation of suspended aspiration. The four young men in the film, frequently dismissed as idle, occupy a social position that is neither fully excluded nor meaningfully integrated. This condition finds a contemporary analogue, albeit in transformed spaces. Today’s “street corner” is often digital rather than physical. It appears...

 I grew up being told that my name, Pratham, comes from a Gujarati bhajan “pratham pela samariye…” Before anything, we remember you. As a Barodian, this wasn’t presented to me as philosophy. It was just… how things were done. You start with him. You invoke him. You don’t really ask why. And for a long time, I didn’t. But at some point, that unquestioned habit starts to itch a little. Why him? Why this particular figure, round-bellied, elephant-headed, seated with sweets in hand and a mouse at his feet, presiding over beginnings of all things? Businesses, weddings, journeys, exams. Everything begins with Ganesha. If you ask around, you’ll get the standard answer: he removes obstacles. Which sounds satisfying, until you pause long enough to realise it explains almost nothing. Because it raises a better question: why does the remover of obstacles look like that? For many outside India, the conversation rarely gets past the elephant head. It’s treated like a visual quirk,interesting, ...